Strand handling apparatus



' E. E. FRANZ STRANDHANDLING APPARATUS Dec. 21, 1937.

Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR E.E.FRANZ ATTOR/IEY FIG! Dec. 21; 1937.

E. FRANZ STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet FIG! .57 ea .57 2a aa\ :2 72 so 1 Lead Z 1 l as 1 h; llllllllllll I: 7/ O 2-- 183 5 OH I.

INVENTOR .E.E.FRANZ a MM A TTORNEY Dec. 21, 1937. E. FRANZ 2,102,692

STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 7 Fla. 7

I INVE/V TOR c. c. FRANZ BY A TTORNEY Dec..2l,1937. I E. E. FRANZ 2,102,692

STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Fil ed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG/I luvs/v 10)? E. E. FRA NZ A TTORNEV Dec. 21, 1931. E; E FRANZ 2,102 692 STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG. I2

INVEN TOR E. E. FRANZ BY A r TORNEIY Dec. 21, 1937. E, E, FRANZ 2,102,692

STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVEN TOR E. E. FRANZ A TTORNEY Dec. 21, 1937. E. E. FRANZ STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Filed March 11, 1936 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 FIG. 16

INVENTOR 5.5. FRANZ \R\ YIMM A T TORNEY Patented Dec. 21, 1937 PATENT OFFICE STRAND HANDLING APPARATUS Erwin a. Franz, Cranford. N. 3., alsignor to Westcrn Electric Company, Incorporated, New York,

N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 11, 1936, Serial No. 68,283

Claim.

This invention relates to strand handling apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for winding strands on toroidal cores.

In various branches of the electrical arts, particularly in such as deal with the recording, re-

' production and transmission of sound there is use for electromagnetic circuits involving compact and eillcient inductive devices in the form of toroidal or doughnut shaped cores of magnetic material having coils of electrical conductors wound thereon. Some such cores are made integral throughout and the windings placed thereon by threading the successive turns of conductor through the central hole in the coil.

An object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for winding a strand on a toroidal core in successive turns each passing through the central aperture of the core.

The invention contemplates, in one embodiment thereof, an apparatus comprising means to hold a toroidal core to be wound, a substantially rectilinear shuttle to hold and carry a supply of strand to be wound on the core, means to carry the shuttle and the strand in a closed loop path passing through the aperture of the core, and coacting means to apply the strand thus looped through the core in tight and properly disposed and located turns about the core.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof in apparatus for winding a strand on a toroidal core, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures, and in which Fig. 1 is a broken, schematic plan view of an apparatus embodying the invention with the lid removed:

Fig. 2 is an enlarged broken section on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detached. broken, perspective view of the moving parts shown in Fig. 2 and associated parts;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detached view in longitudinal central section of the shuttle;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-8 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged, detached, broken, plan view partly in section of the strand applicator mechanism;

Fig. 8 is a section on the line 8-8 of Fig. '7;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged section on the line 99 of Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged detached view in perspective from below of the main drive shaft and cam:

Fig. 11 is a section on the line ll-ll of Fig. 10;

Fig. 12 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a modified form of the apparatus;

.Fig. 13 is an enlarged. sectional plan view of the shuttle of Fig. 12;

Fig. 14 is a section on the lines "-44 of Figs. 12 and 13;

Fig. 15 is a detached broken perspective view of the shuttle drive at the winding point;

Fig. 16 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of another modified form;

Fig. 17 is a section on the line il-il of Fig. 16; and

Fig. 18 is a section on the line 88-48 of Fig. 1.

In the embodiment of theinvention disclosed in Figs. 1 to 11 inclusive, the apparatus is assembled and supported on a tabular base member 25 which may be supported by any appropriate means not shown, such as legs or a pedestal or brackets or the like. This base member is preferably an appropriately formed and machined casting or forging of suitable material, iron, steel, brass, or the like. On the base 25 rests a similarly tabular cover member 26, which is formed with a large central roughly ellipsoidal opening 21. The tabular cover member may be one piece, or for convenience in manufacture, may be made in two or more parts, as may also the base member 25. A sheet metal'lid 28 may be provided and may cover the entire apparatus or may be formed as shown with a central opening to match the opening 21. The members 26, 28, and 28 may be secured together in any suitable fashion as by screws, bolts, pins, clamps, or the like, not shown.

The base 25 and the cover 26 are formed with matched coacting grooves 29 and 3i respectively (Fig. 2) which together form .a shuttle guide channel 30 having a nearly closed cross section interrupted by a continuous slot 82 along that side of the channel which is toward the opening 21. The channel 30 runs in an elongated closed figure with parallel straight sides joined by arcuate ends. In the straight portions of the channel, its cross section is substantially circular, but in the arcuate ends it is broadened in the horizontal plane to allow the rigid, straight shuttle 40, which travels in the channel, to swing around the curves.

The base 251s also formed with vertically disposed slots 33 and 34 which coincide in position and communicate with the bottom of the channel 30 around the arcuate parts and along portions of the straight parts of the channel. Each of the slots 33 and 34 is a closed loop disposed roughly in a double arch with the portion along the inner side of the arch coinciding in position as described with part of the channel 33. There is a gap at each side of the machine between the opposed feet of the slot loops.

The gap at the right side (Fig. l) is bridged by a slot 33 formed in the cover 23 and communicating with the channel 33 through the top thereof, along a part of the slot 33. The slot 33 extends as an elongated loop, coinciding in position in part with the slots 33 and 34 and with the channel 33.

In the gap at the left side the members 25, 23, and 23 are cut away in a triangular recess 31 communicating at its inner end with a short parallel walled passage 33 which in turn opens into a roughly octagonal aperture 33 in the base 25. The channel 33 is interrupted by the passage 33. A clamping device generally indicated at 23 is supported by means not shown in the recess 31 and serves to hold a toroidal core 24 in position to be wound. The details of structure and functioning of the device 23 are irrelevant to the present invention and so are not disclosed here. A satisfactory device for the purpose is disclosed in U. S. Patent 1,994,661 issued March 19, 1935. It suffices to remark here that the device is movable to distribute the successive turns upon the cor circumferentlally thereof.

A shuttle, generally indicated at 43 and shown in detail in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, is located in the channel 33, the channel and shuttle being relatively so proportioned that the shuttle may slide freely in and be guided by the channel. The shuttle comprises a hollow cylindrical body H of metal, or of suitable composition such as artiflcial resin, and a pair of end plugs 42 and 43. The front plug 42 is fastened into the body 4| by a. pin 44, and is formed with a transverse bore' in which is housed a sliding latch 45 provided with a spring 43, the spring pressed latch 45 serving to removably retain a correspondingly notched bobbin stem 41 in the head 42. The body 4i is formed with a perforation I48 opposite the upper end of the latch 45, through which an appropriate tool may be thrust to depress the latch and release the bobbin stem when desired.

The bobbin stem 41 has one head 43 rigidly secured near its forward end by a pin 43 the head being formed with one or more recesses 53 to receive driving members when the bobbin is to be filled.

The rear plug 43 is remcvably secured in the body M by a latch member 5| mounted in an appropriate transverse bore in the' plug and pressed outwardly by a spring 52. This plug is also formed With an axial passage 53 to permit strand 22 to pass from the bobbin out the rear end of the shuttle. Each of the plugs 42 and 43 is further formed with an external circumferential driving slot 53 and 54 respectively.

Returning now to the base member 25 of the apparatus, each of the slots 33 and 34 communicates along its lower edge with a correspondingly located passage 55 and 53 respectively which runs through the body under the corresponding slot; and the slot 36 communicates along its upper edge with a similar passage 51 running through the cover 26.

Sprocket chains 58, 53, and 63 are housed in the passages 55, 53, and 51 respectively. The sprocket chain 58 runs over four idler sprockets 6|, 6i and is driven by a sprocket 32 on the shaft 53. The chain 53 runs over three idler sprockets 34, (two broken away in Fig. 1), drives the shaft 35 through the sprocket 36, and is driven by the sprocket 31 from a suitable motor I33. The shaft 35 drives the shaft 33 through a chain 33.

' The chain 33 is driven by the sprocket 33 on the shaft 33 and runs over an idler sprocket 13. The chains 53 and 53 carry, at predetermined intervals along the same, upstanding pins H extending up therefrom through the slots 33 and 34 into the channel 33 in such a way that one and only one of these pins at a time may engage either in the slot 53 or the slot 54 of the shuttle 43. The chain 33 is provided with similar pins 12 extending similarly downwardly therefrom through the slot 33 into the channel 33 also to engage with the slots 53 or 54.

The chain 33 runs also over and drives a sprocket 13 on a shaft 14 (Figs. 1, 10, and 11) journalled vertically in a bracket 15 secured in any suitable way as by bolts 13 to the base 25. The upper arm 11 of the bracket is also formed as a stationary cam member with a cam groove 13 formed therein. A gear 13 is freely rotatable on the shaft 14 and is driven by a link 83 pivotally attached to the gear and also to an annular driving member 3| encircling the shaft 14. A second driving member 32 is mounted on and keyed to the shaft and drives the member 3| through a pivot pin 33 mounted in both members 3| and 82. a cam pin 34 whose enlarged head slides in and is guided by the cam groove 13. The gear 19 is thus driven by the continuously rotating shaft 14 with a cyclically intermittent and cyclically varying motion.

The gear 19 drives ahorizontal shaft 85 through a gear thereon as shown, which shaft extends under the inner edge of the aperture 33 in the left side of the machine base, where it drives a gear 33 and thereby a pair of other gears 81, 38 through intermediate idlers as shown (Figs. '7, 8, and 9), so that gears 33, 31, and 33 run in the same direction as one passes around the circumference of the aperture 33.

The tops of the gears 33, 31, and 88 lie a little below the axial plane of the channel 33 and support the arcuate body of an applicator generally indicated by the numeral 33, and formed on its under side with gear teeth 33 to match and engage with the teeth of the supporting gears. The body of the applicator consists of two, arcuately trough shaped halves 9| and 32, arcuate also in cross section, together forming an incomplete circular toroid of circular cross section. The two halves are hinged together at 93, 93, and enclose a chamber of generally toroidal form.

Beginning now at the left upper end of the applicator chamber (Fig. 7), there is therein a wheel 94 mounted on a block 95 which is urged toward the right by a compression spring 38. The periphery of the wheel 94 is formed with a tapered and blunted edge as shown in Fig. 9, which mates with the grooved edge of a sheave 31 mounted on a stationary pivot. Next and spaced slightly from the sheave 31 is a similar, grooved and fixedly positioned but rotatable sheave 33, followed at a small space by another grooved, fixed and rotatable sheave 33. Further along, another grooved sheave I33 is mounted in a block I3I balanced between springs I32 and I33. There is a short slot I34 in the outer periphery of the applicator body opposite the contact of the wheel 94 and sheave 31, and a longer slot The member 8| is also provided with i ,m m the inner body periphery running about from the wheel to the blocklll.

In operation, 'the bobbin I. I8 is filled with.

strand to be wound on a toroidal core 24 held in the clamp 28 and the bobbin seated in the shuttle ill. The end of the strand is threaded throu h the applicator from'the shuttle as shown in Fig.

7 and is secured to the core. The shuttle is introduced into the channel 38 across the gap 7 gear 81 counterclockwise. thus driving the chain 88 in the direction of the arrows applied thereto. The chain it draws the shuttle down. around the lower part of the channel It and up on the right handjside until, as indicated in Fig. 3, at a predetermined moment one of the pins 12' of drivingwheels, and with a shuttle gripping portion 282 having a longitudinal groove 283 therein. .The groove has the cross-sectional contour of a trifle more than half a circle of such dimension as to fit closely around and grip the cylindrical shuttle 248 irictionally and so drive it without the need for driving. pins such as Ii. In passing over the idler sheaves nearest the core 24, as shown in Fig. 15, the lips 20! open because of the bending of the belt to release the shuttle above and to grip it again below the core, before and after passing-therethrough.

The shuttle 240 'is made with an elastically flexible body 2, and the strand is wound on a removable core .pin. (not shown) which is removed afterthe bobbin with its stub. core pin'is placed in the body m.- Thus the shuttle will conform the chain 80 enters the top 'of the slot 84 at therear of the shuttle. Amoment later the pin of thechain 88 leaves the shuttle to pass off around the sprocket 68. The chain 68 then pushes the shuttle along untilit is in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 when one of the pins H of the chain 58 enters the under part of the slot 54 at the rear of the shuttle and a moment later the pin .on the chain 80 disengages from the shuttle and passes away over the sprocket 89. This transfer from chain to chain is necessary to change the drive of the shuttle from the front slot 53 to'the rear slot 84 in anticipation of pushing the shuttle through the core 2| again, which is done shortly thereafter by the chain 58. Then when the shuttle is again in the position shown in-Fig. 1, another pin .H on the chain 58 will enter the forward slot 53 while the pin on the chain 58 leaves the slot 84 and the above cycle is repeated.

' loose loop of strand formed about the core by the shuttle into a tight turn about the core. The strand as it is tightened thus about the core is tensioned by the system of sheaves and springs within the applicator. In particular also the sheave I00 balanced between the springs I02 and 23 serves to take up and give out Strand alterto the peripheral contour of the twin wheels 281 whilepassing thereover. 4

The third disclosure in Figs. 16 and 1'7shows the I interlinked with the core to be wound and rotatnately to compensate for the varying distance of the sheave 99 from the core as the applicator revolves. I

The modified form of the apparatus shown in Figs. 12, 13, 14, and 15 performs the same opera-" tion in substantially the same way, but here the chains 58, 59, and 60 and the guide channel 30 of the previously described machine, are replaced by a single flexible belt 258 having the cross section shown at the top of Fig. 14 and having driving pins 259 whereby it may be positively driven from one of a correspondingly notched or toothed pair of twin wheels 26'! driven by the motor 268. The upper wheel 26'! is an idler hung from the under side of the cover 28, and the lower wheel 261 is the actual driver.

'There is a clear gap between the two wheels over 'ing in such fashion that the entire path of each part of the shuttle lies always within the body of the shuttle. The shuttle is a ring and while one part of it is passing through the hole in the core the diametrically opposite part is passing through the plane of the core outside the core and in the opposite direction. It is characteristic of the present invention that while the shuttle is passing through the aperture of the core the entire shuttle is moving unidirectionally as to all parts thereof. There are no two parts moving simultaneously in opposite directions. The prior toroidal shuttles remain stationary in position although rotating there. The present shuttle is transported bodily as a whole.

The embodiment of the invention herein dis-' closed is illustrative only and may be widely departed from and modified in many ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limited only by the appended. claims.

Whatis claimed is:

1. In an" apparatus for winding strand on a toroidalc'ore, means to hold a toroidal core to be wound; a pair ,01' sheaves positioned with the core therebetween, a shuttle to hold a supply of strand, flexible means passing over one of the sheaves and positioned to engage the shuttle and having means thereon to insert the shuttle into the core and then release the shuttle after it has" moved into the core, and flexible means passing over the other sheave and positioned to engage the shuttle and having means thereon to couple to the inserted shuttle and withdraw the same from the core.

2. In an apparatus for winding strand on a toroidal core, means to hold a toroidal core to be wound, a pair of sheaves positioned with the core therebetween, a shuttle to hold a supply of strand, flexible means passing over the sheaves and positioned to engage the shuttle and having means from one side thereof and to release the shuttle after it has moved into the core and to couple to the shuttle again on the other side of the core and to withdraw the shuttle from the core and transport it bodily and as a whole around the core and outside the same and to the first side thereof again.

4. In an apparatus for winding strand on a toroidal core, means to hold a toroidal core to be wound, a shuttle to hold a supply of strand, an endless belt having means thereon to grip and to release the shuttle, means to guide the belt to the core at one side thereof to insert and release the shuttle therein, and means to guide the belt to the core at the other side thereof to grip and withdraw the shuttle therefrom.

5. In an apparatus for winding strand on a toroidal core, means to hold a toroidal core to be wound, means to define a. looped path passing through the core, a shuttle to hold a supply of strand, and means to move the shuttle along the path comprising an endless flexible member disposed in part along a part of the path and provided wtih means to couple to and uncouple from the shuttle, a second endless flexible member disposed in part along another part of the path and provided with means to couple to and couple from the shuttle, and a third similar flexible member to'bridge a gap between the first and second members.

ERWIN E. FRANZ. 

